UK Festivals: Fund wants to offer £18 tickets for young people

Going to a music festival used to be a staple of a teenager's summer.

Spending a weekend seeing your favourite bands is a great way to celebrate (or forget) end-of-year exams.

But the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis means many teens may have never been to a festival.

That's something a new crowdfunding scheme, which will use the cash to offer a chance at £18 tickets, wants to change - if it can raise the money.

If your 18th birthday lands between September 1 2019 and August 31 2023, you can get on the waiting list for events.

They're run by The Association of Independent Festivals - the people offering a limited run of discount tickets to some of its events.

Boss John Rostron says they want to "make it really affordable to get people out to their first festival".

He believes older audiences have been able to keep coming thanks to payment plans, which teenagers are less likely to do.

Ticket prices have been going up - Glastonbury cost £340 this year, £75 more than when they last went on sale in 2019.

"I think the crunch on young people is perhaps a bit harder," says John.

"They have less money coming in, and they have all the costs of being a young person.

"So it is really affecting them, missing out on events and missing out on places to go and things to do."

EJ is a big live music fan who's experienced the feeling of missing out.

The 17-year-old, who uses they/them pronouns, has never been to a festival as they can't afford it.

"They're expensive," EJ tells BBC Newsbeat.

"I'm a student and I don't have that kind of money to be spending. But I would love to go to a festival if I could."

EJ says they have had to spend less on food spending to afford gig tickets, and would have to make "unrealistic" savings on things like travelling to college to afford a festival.

So they think the scheme is a great idea.

But EJ thinks more could be done to make festivals accessible if you're on a tight budget.

Like food and drink - which are often far more expensive than they would be in a shop.

"My friend said he bought a Red Bull last year and it was £5.

"That is ridiculous. I feel like if they could lower that, that would would make it a lot easier for a lot of people."

But festivals have also been feeling a squeeze, according to Michael Lain.

He's an organiser of 110 Above Festival - it's signed up to the £18 tickets scheme.

Michael says his event has "done everything we can to keep prices down as much as possible" even though their supply chain costs have increased.

He says their tickets have seen a "marginal" increase this year, but without the rise they'd go out of business.

"Specifically for independent festivals, they're very much a passion project. So they're not there to really make a lot of money," he says.

"We have people, of course, to feed at home and so forth. So it's an absolute necessity that the prices do go up, of course, just as little as we can possibly do."

Currently, the £18 scheme includes festivals like Kendal Calling and NASS - but John says the association has been in touch with some larger events to try and get them on board.

EJ hopes more big festivals get behind discount tickets.

"You should just help the people that want to come see the music and let them enjoy the music.

"I don't know anyone that doesn't enjoy live music.

"Giving people the opportunity to go to a festival, I feel like that's so, so great."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.